


Promenade of the Stars

by MathiasHyde



Series: Star Drifter series [3]
Category: Tennis no Oujisama | Prince of Tennis
Genre: Alternate Universe - Space, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-21
Updated: 2016-07-23
Packaged: 2018-04-10 12:06:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 15,541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4391246
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MathiasHyde/pseuds/MathiasHyde
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five years after the events of Gateway, Yukimura's carefully laid plans are finally coming to fruition.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Part 1

“I am very thankful, to both of you. For many things.

“I am very proud to have had you as my teammates and my friends. I wish you only the best for the future.”

\--

How does one measure the passage of time?

Sanada could only guess at how Yagyuu and Niou thought, the two remaining results of experiments by Dr. Yagyuu that were almost one and the same being at this point. He'd briefly been told the details of what had happened on the colonies by Yagyuu when they'd arrived back and while he had no doubts that he could get further information from Yanagi or even Oshitari, he decided it didn't matter.

It didn't really affect them staying at his house or working for him, so Sanada left it as it was.

They were just good workers and with Kirihara gone, he had to admit that having Yagyuu around kept Niou out of trouble and away from bothering him. The bespectacled man was even harder to read than Niou was though and Sanada found himself considering his polite, restrained mannerisms and comparing them to Niou's spontaneity that sometimes Sanada suspected was just as planned. 

Perhaps Yagyuu counted the days by the regular maintenance Niou did on his artificial legs. Sanada didn't think he'd count the days based on the drudgery work that he made the two of them do, necessary to keep the store afloat. There was nothing really of significant there. Even as the jobs had slowly transformed over the years into explosives and custom designed weapons, Yagyuu modified and created them without seeming to even think about it.

What then, were the past five years to him?

There were times during their mealtimes when they would see Yagyuu's mother appear for a council announcement on the news. She regularly fronted the push against the terrorists that she said were growing more bold every year.

He always saw the tightening of Yagyuu's expression, the awkward way in which Niou turned off the television and how they continued their meal in silence without ever mentioning what had happened, not even making an effort to fill in the background noise with anything else.

Sanada wondered if Niou kept track by those moments, with how carefully he watched Yagyuu's expressions and how aware he was of keeping Yagyuu away from certain things.

His own way of keeping track of time didn't seem very reliable, the more that he thought about it and saw how things had moved on, so quickly, almost without him realising it. From the days of him joining the military academy and the years that went by in almost a blink of an eye, to opening his own shop that had somehow become one of the cornerstones of Yukimura's ambitions. 

Had that really been nearly 20 years?

The past 15 years he could track easily, marked by the annual visit to the colonies; fifteen visits with Atobe to visit Tezuka's grave to pay their respects to their former teammate and friend.

Or perhaps a more accurate measure would be by the coming and goings of Yukimura, who came by every month for his maintenance check up with Niou, often with Yanagi in tow. When Yanagi came, the visits were filled with new ideas that kept having to be put on hold and pushed back, the other man growing more and more visibly frustrated as the years went by.

He knew that Yukimura measured the passage of time by the number of successes he had; the eruption of war within the Western European Alliance again that culminated after three years with the surrender of the Kingdom of Scandinavia, and the collapse of the Neutral Territory Treaty being prime among them. He wondered if the other man had felt anything, seeing his former home go up in flames in the new reports and the live coverage. But it was hard to read the impassive face Yukimura put on, harder than reading even Tezuka had ever been for him.

The only time he had been assured of Yukimura's feelings was just a few scant days ago, seeing the announcement of Atobe's election into the position of Council Chairman after a successful coup and election campaign. Throughout the broadcast of Atobe's speech, he'd seen the curling of Yukimura's lips up into a smile that he saw all too rarely these days, something that wasn't just placed there for the sake of politeness or appearances. 

He had seen the hungry anticipation in his expression and Sanada had frowned slightly and turned back to the screen to look at Atobe gesticulating at the cameras.

How had it become like this? Sometimes he wondered.

–

It was still early when Sanada was disturbed from his thoughts by a loud knocking on the store's front door. Niou wouldn't open it, he was still asleep and would be for hours yet and even if Yagyuu was awake, they'd reach an unspoken agreement years ago that Yagyuu wouldn't open the door for his own safety in the aftermath of the rescue incident and none of them had ever mentioned changing it.

It was temping to just ignore it and continue on with his morning routine, what with hours still to go until the store opened and the artificial lighting of the ports only just changing from nighttime to morning.

But the knocking grew only more insistent and Sanada finally abandoned his kettle and thermometer to answer it, blinking in surprise as he found himself face to face with Atobe Keigo, looking ruffled and unlike the composed man Sanada had seen just the previous night on the news.

“Keigo,” Sanada said, stepping back to let the other man in.

Atobe looked around before he entered, checking the road behind him almost anxiously and Sanada frowned a little, locking the door behind them almost instinctively.

“Where is everyone else? Is Yukimura here?” Atobe was already marching towards the kitchen and Sanada followed behind him, watching as he stripped off his outer layers. He was handling a folder tucked under his arm too carefully and Sanada's gaze lingered on it before he answered.

“Both Yagyuu and Niou are asleep.” And if they continued following the same schedule they always did, Yagyuu should be waking up soon. “And Seiichi is at home on the Colonies, where you should be too.”

Atobe ignored his words. As Sanada walked into the kitchen, Atobe shut the door behind them, shoving the chair that usually held it open out of the way. “And your other stray?”

“Akaya left months ago to move in with Renji.”

There was a pause before Atobe nodded curtly, moving to sit down. “Good. We're alone, then.”

Atobe seemed tense and now that they were alone in a room that Sanada didn't think had ever been shut off like this, he seemed almost anxious and at a loss for words.

Sanada stared at him for a long moment before he spoke and broke the silence. “Do you want some coffee?”

Atobe looked at him almost disbelievingly but he sighed and nodded. “Thank you, Genichirou.”

It was easier to ignore the strange mood Atobe was in as Sanada boiled the kettle yet again, pulling down a second cup from the cupboard. This one had a pattern of gamboling cats on it, most likely bought at some point by Niou, but it was the least offensive of all the available cups that all had some kind of garish print on them.

There was no need for conversation to fill in the silence between them, a strange sense of comfort between them just by being in the same room together. He glanced occasionally at Atobe who seemed to be calming down somewhat in the surrounds of Sanada's kitchen. It took just a few moments to measure out the powder for the coffee, making a cup of his regular coffee for himself as well before handing one cup over and moving down to sit opposite Atobe.

There was another silence as Atobe stared into his cup and there was a strange tightening of his mouth. Perhaps it was the cats, but he doubted Atobe was resentful towards Sanada and his 'number one dad' cup that Akaya had bought him one year.

“Why are you here?” Sanada asked finally.

He saw Atobe's gaze flicker towards his cup of coffee before returning to his own. “We've been deceived, Genichirou.”

There was something plaintive about Atobe's voice, thin and almost desperate, at odds with the powerful presence he normally presented and Sanada stared at him longer. Atobe moved the folder on the table across to him, his fingers clenching at the edge of it even as Sanada reached to take it.

Sanada glanced at the folder – a rarity nowadays in a time of technology and digital work – and at the “classified” written across it. He became suddenly aware of how his heart was pounding in anticipation; even as he was unaware of what was in it, thought a small part of his mind had come up with crazy ideas... ludicrous ideas that he shouldn't be entertaining.

He flipped the folder open and found himself staring at a photo of a bespectacled man: gaunter... _older_ than he'd ever seen him and ever imagined him... but unmistakably Tezuka.

He closed the folder almost immediately and shut his eyes for a long moment, the photograph and the still familiar gaze almost burned into his brain even in the short glance that he'd gotten of it.

“Explain,” he said roughly, pushing, almost throwing the folder back across the table. “Explain, _now_ Keigo.”

Atobe just shook his head wordlessly and there was such a helpless look on his face, something Sanada hadn't seen for a very long time... not since Tezuka had _died_ , maybe and Sanada slammed his hand down on the table.

“I watched him die. I _buried_ him. How can he still be alive?!” Sanada belatedly realised that at some point he'd stood up and almost without him realising, he was shouting, his breathing harsh and he clenched his fingers together, making himself sit back down again. It took more effort than he wanted to admit to make his knees bend, to force himself to settle back into the chair and take a moment to sit and breathe and think.

“I don't know.” Atobe held up a hand as Sanada opened his mouth to speak and he fell silent again. “Yuushi found that particular folder for me as I was moving into the new office.”

Atobe's breath was shaky as he inhaled and he seemed for a moment to just lose his composure, pinching the bridge of his nose before he hit the top of the table with his fist.

“We all knew they were in there, Genichirou, I know people who have disappeared into there while I've been on the council at the Chairman's judgement. But I never thought...”

Never thought that Tezuka could be one of them, the unspoken words hung in the air between them.

“Does it say why?” He found himself gripping his coffee cup tightly, almost to stop himself from reaching out to grab the folder again, open it up and just drink in the sight of Tezuka's face.

“It says absolutely nothing,” Atobe said and Sanada could hear the same frustration that he felt in his voice. He wanted... they _deserved_ an answer at least as to why, why it had happened. “I would question the former chairman, but...” Atobe just made a vague gesture and Sanada nodded.

The former chairman Kiichi, the man responsible it seemed for this incident, had been shot down just a few months after Tezuka's trial and had apparently taken the reasons with him.

Surely there had to be a reason for them to have stayed an execution that they'd resigned themselves to, there had to be a reason Tezuka had been kept in a prison instead of allowed his freedom like Sanada and Atobe had been... surely there had to be _something_.

“What _does_ it say, at least?”

“Not a lot. Him being there is as good as him having stopped existing. He might as well have died.” Atobe drummed his fingers on the side of his coffee cup. “I should have pushed for the coup years ago, I had the support.”

Sanada gave into temptation and reached out to open the folder again, the photo staring up at him. Still serious, still so obviously Kunimitsu Tezuka in a way that was so achingly familiar even as Sanada stared at the parts of him that were different.

How long did he spend staring at Tezuka's face? As long as Atobe dwelled on the possibility of having staged the coup long ago and faced this revelation years previously.

The point of Atobe being here he realised then, was because he couldn't get Tezuka out himself, for some reason he wasn't able to go through official channels to get him out. Because if he could have, Sanada didn't doubt that it would have been both of them at his doorstep that morning.

“I can't get him out myself,” Sanada said finally. There was no question of whether or not they were doing it. He didn't see the need to even ask for any kind of permission and as he glanced up at Atobe, he knew Atobe saw no reason for him having asked either. He frowned at Atobe's unreadable expression. “You're not going to break someone out of jail, Keigo. Not now.”

He thought for a moment that Atobe was going to argue, but surely he must have seen the sense in Sanada's refusal. What would it have said if the newly elected Chairman of the council was found breaking out a prisoner?

“We wouldn't be able to tell people why we'd be going to the prison, you realise,” Atobe said. “They can't know, Genichirou. I don't trust anyone with this but you and Yuushi.”

Sanada nodded and he watched Atobe frown and take a reluctant sip of coffee, putting it down and pushing it to the side fairly quickly. “Are you going to tell Yukimura about this? You do tell him everyting.”

It was a long pause then and he could feel Atobe staring at him intensely, waiting for an answer, for any sort of reaction at all, perhaps. Sanada looked at the top of Atobe's coffee, at the powder floating in chunks on top of the liquid and then down to Tezuka's face that was still staring at him from the folder.

And really, the answer was simple.

“Seiichi doesn't need to know.”

–

They spoke for a long time, turning over ideas for what they could do between them. Some were ludicrous as they grew more desperate for good ideas and it was only when he heard footsteps down the hallway and the familiar creak at a particular section that Sanada sat back and realised how long they'd been talking for.

“Who closed the door?” Niou pushed it open and walked into the kitchen, still half asleep and he froze as he spotted Atobe and Sanada together. Almost immediately the sleepy expression on his face changed to annoyance.

“What are you doing here? You’re not meant to be visiting for a few more months.”

“Why are you _still_ here?” Atobe asked. “Haven’t you moved out yet?”

Sanada cut across as he saw Niou open his mouth to retort, probably say something about how he did most of the work at the shop and actually kept it profitable - not untrue either, but having them argue over that was just wasting precious time. “Is Yagyuu awake?”

Niou glanced at him and frowned. “Of course he is.”

“Make his tea and go talk to him. You’ll be running the store for a few days.”

Niou recognised a dismissal when he heard it and he shrugged, heading over to the cupboard to pull down coffee cups. Sanada heard a very quiet “like that’s any different to normal” from Niou that he ignored. They sat in silence otherwise, listening to Niou turn on the kettle again and measure out tea leaves.

Atobe was watching Niou very closely over Sanada’s shoulder and he could see the man’s hands tightening on his coffee cup. He resisted the urge to look around and see what Niou was doing that was getting that sort of reaction. Nothing bad, surely, he'd watched Niou make tea every morning for the past five years for Yagyuu.

“Why’d you use the powder coffee, Sanada?” Niou suddenly asked and the kettle was turned off. “I thought I said not to.”

“I made it for Keigo. There’s normal coffee in the pot.”

Sanada thought he heard a soft snort of laughter as Niou poured himself a cup of coffee, but then there was the usual clinking around as he carefully finished making Yagyuu his morning pot of tea and Sanada could almost believe that he'd imagined hearing it.

“Alright, I'm done.” Niou paused in the doorway, holding open the door with one foot as he turned around to look at them again. “Also, just to check... It’s only for a few days, right? You’re definitely coming back?”

Normally Sanada would just dismiss the question, much like Atobe seemed to with his impatient snort. Sanada held up his hand to silence Atobe, who he could see about to say something. There was something in Niou’s expression, almost troubled and unreadable. He wouldn’t be surprised if Niou had laughed and said he was fine if Sanada didn’t come back at all because he’d have the whole place for himself and Yagyuu. But there was no underlying humour in his face for once.

“I’m definitely coming back.” He stared at Niou and there was the passing of the unsaid ‘don’t worry’ between them that made Niou's face scrunch up a little uncomfortably. “I’ll call you before I dock so you can clean up.”

Niou made a rude hand gesture at him and turned away to leave the room. “Like I’m going to trash your house. Rude old man.”

And then he was gone, letting the door shut behind him. They sat in silence for a while longer, hearing Niou's footsteps retreat down the hallway, the creak of the wooden floorboards at one point and then the door to Niou's workroom open and shut.

If he strained his ears he could maybe hear the low indiscernible murmur of voices as Yagyuu and Niou greeted each other, but he had lost interest in overhearing their conversations a long time ago.

“You have quite a collection of tea leaves, Genichirou,” Atobe said and Sanada frowned at the slightly strained sound to his voice.

“Yes. You bought me some of them.” Every year, in fact. As did Niou and Akaya whenever there was interesting new teas available at the trading markets. Even with Yagyuu now living with them as another tea drinker, he still had too much to get through even with both of them drinking it every day.

There was an awkward pause between them before Atobe pushed away his cup of coffee, moving to stand up. “Let's be off, then. Kunimitsu's waited 15 years, let's not keep him waiting any longer.”

–

It was a small stealth model ship that headed to the prison, the mirage shield system activated for the entire journey that made the heat inside the ship almost unbearable.

It was designed for usage in short bursts, not hours at a time and Sanada turned his attention to watching the other inhabitants of the ship to take his mind off the sweat that trickled down his back and the sound of the engines that he was sure could be heard even as Oshitari assured him it couldn't be.

Atobe hadn't been joking when he'd said he only trusted a few people with the knowledge of the mission. There was Yuushi Oshitari, of course, currently flying the ship, Atobe's advisor and arguably his closet friend.

Sanada had opposed when Oshitari's involvement with the rescue had been suggested by Atobe. It was too risky, too much blame could be apportioned to Atobe himself if something happened and they were caught.

“You know what he is, Genichirou. You know his war record and what he can do. You'll need him there,” Atobe had said.

And to that, Sanada really had no rebuttal.

They were to be aided by Oshitari's protege, Hikaru Zaizen at the prison, though he'd be safely hidden on the colonies, that according to Akaya, he rarely left. 

Sanada shook his head at the thought of their teammate. He'd known of Zaizen from when Akaya had first moved into his house. He'd been the messy haired boy that had broken into his back garden on a regular basis to spend time with Akaya. There had always been extra food made those days, though Sanada had never made any mention of it, and neither Zaizen nor Akaya had either.

He'd mentioned the three of Akaya's friends to Atobe at one point, but he hadn't known what would have become of them. His thoughts lingered for a bit on Akaya living with Kaidou, Inui and Yanagi... a worrying combination.

The last member of their team Sanada had known about more from rumour and reputation than actually having met him before. Jirou Akutagawa, from the inner sanctum of Atobe's network.

He didn't look like much at the moment, strapped to his seat, his head lolling in sleep in a way that was far too reminiscent of Niou sleeping on the job for Sanada's liking, but he had heard the stories nonetheless. The terrifying center piece of Atobe's exclusive special operations team.

Sanada stared at him for a little longer as his head lolled to the other side and he gave a little sniff in his sleep, shifting slightly.

He wasn't very impressive.

There was little discussion throughout the trip and Sanada dwelled on his thoughts until he felt the ship slow down as they passed through the deactivated security barriers to land. He'd looked at the plans for the asteroid, with its impenetrable barrier that was activated whenever an unauthorised ship flew nearby and had pointed that out as their first obstacle.

Of course, he hadn't reckoned with the newly developed mirage shield system being implemented in carrier craft yet. As far as Sanada was aware from his discussions with Jackal, it was still only being trialled.

“We've landed as planned,” Oshitari said, coming over to help wake Jirou up. The man was only half awake, fumbling with the straps until Oshitari patiently pushed his hands out of the way to do it himself. “We'll proceed with plan A. Jirou and I will make our way to the control room and then to Kenya. Once we're inside, Sanada, you will circle around to where you need to be.”

Jirou frowned and Sanada could see some part of him stirring. “He's doing something else...?”

“Focus on Kenya, darling. Keigo needs you to get him.”

It was just a little longer until they left as Sanada made his way through the weapons stored on the ship. It had been a long time since he'd held a gun, but as Sanada hefted them one by one and strapped one to his waist and another to his back, it felt oddly familiar and almost comforting in his hand. 

Oshitari paused before he reached for a side cupboard, pulling out one last item. “You'll want these as well,” he held out a pair of familiar looking glasses that Sanada took with a frown.

“These are...”

“Masaharu sent them over weeks ago for my birthday. You really do need to give your cute apprentice a payrise.”

As he said that, Sanada immediately recognised them. He'd seen them sitting for weeks on Niou's workbench, with some scribbled plans on the paper underneath them that Sanada had only glanced at briefly. Niou was known for working on private projects and as long as they didn't cost too much money, didn't damage his store and he still got his workload completed for the store, Sanada didn't really pay too much attention.

He'd assumed they were some sort of modification for Yagyuu, but the other man's glasses hadn't changed at all even though the pair had eventually vanished.

Sanada grunted and put them on his face, immediately seeing a map of the prison flash up in his field of vision and the glasses start to analyse the surroundings in front of him.

The final piece was a small earpiece that connected to the arm of the glasses that he inserted into his ear, listening to Oshitari talk.

“You'll be connected to Hikaru with that. He'll guide you to where Tezuka is once we get into their system and locate his exact position.”

He knew the building specifications of the asteroid, from reading through Atobe's classified files. It did have an artificial gravity, similar to the Colonies and the ports, but this was lighter and felt more like being back on the moon than being on Earth like the others tried to emulate.

It went easily, almost too easily as they went through the air vent, timed between the system's expulsions of the manufactured air that would see them blown away otherwise. Sanada glanced at Oshitari as he attached an unlocking mechanism onto the sealed exit – designed by Niou apparently, also without his knowledge. But Niou's style was very familiar, almost as if he'd known Sanada would be the one to use it.

He wondered if Oshitari was taking mental notes about what was happening, to report back to Atobe to seal the gaps in the security systems of the prison once they were out.

Sanada went to ask as he activated Niou's device, only for Oshitari to press a finger to his smiling lips and mouth “later”, as if he knew exactly what it was Sanada was going to ask.

“He will be in the deepest parts of the prison, remember. You know the basic area he'll be in. Head there and I will contact you in a few minutes,” Oshitari whispered, standing almost too close to Sanada, his mouth by his ear. “Get him out and meet us at the ship. If something happens, Hikaru will tell you and fly out without us.”

Maybe once he would have argued. Against Tezuka or Atobe, he would have argued. But there was some sort of steely resolve in Oshitari's eyes that Sanada hadn't seen since his meeting with Tezuka in prison all those years ago. So he nodded and without further question, pulled away and jumped through the exit from the airway, running down the corridor.

–

Oshitari watched after Sanada for a few long moments.

He'd questioned the sanity of Atobe's decision for them to break into the prison multiple times. He'd known what would come from finding the folder, but he'd shown it to Atobe anyway, even though there had been the opportunity for him to hide it away. He'd seen Atobe leave the Colonies almost immediately after receiving it and had known where he'd gone.

“He's been here for fifteen years, Keigo. You don't know what he'll be like anymore. You cannot expect him to be the same Kunimitsu Tezuka he was when he died for you.”

But Atobe had made the plans without him, in Sanada Dojo and wasn't able to be talked out of them, no matter what he said. Oshitari didn't know how to feel about that.

Yukimura had needed a reason why they were going to the prison. Oshitari's cousin had provided a good enough excuse. His networking was almost on par with Oshitari's own, only of a different nature, born from his behind the scenes job as a delivery man of a questionable reputation. He was due to be released in a short while anyway, but Yukimura had seen the necessity of him being out of jail and hadn't questioned it.

Perhaps he'd wondered over Sanada needing to go, and Jirou as well who Atobe usually kept out of minor jobs like that... perhaps he suspected there was something more and Oshitari had no doubts Yukimura would find out about Tezuka. But there had been no time to prepare for that inevitability, no time to spin Atobe a tale that he could follow...

The central control system room was easy to access and it took Jirou a matter of seconds to disarm the workers inside. Oshitari heard their bodies hit the ground and he made his way inside.

Oshitari pulled off the panel from the main computer system and attached Zaizen's device, watching in the reflection from the screen as Jirou brought and one of the guards to the floor.

“Got it,” he heard Zaizen say in his ear and Oshitari tapped at the keyboard, shifting through the files. It was easy enough to change Kenya's records, remove him completely from the system as if he'd never been there to begin with.

Did he regret letting Atobe know about Tezuka being alive and in the prison?

… Perhaps, in that dark part of his mind that he didn't dwell upon too often, he did. That part of his mind where he kept his memories of his creator, that night with the knife and the fire and the smashing of a violin upon the floor that for some reason stuck with him so clearly.

Oshitari's fingers stilled on the keyboard, even as he watched Kenya's record disappear and he stared at the blank screen for a long while.

“Rin, stop it.” Zaizen's voice cut Oshitari out of his thoughts and he focused in on the conversation with some surprise. It sounded very... unlike Zaizen, the gasping and Oshitari wondered what was going on. “Go to bed, I'll be there soon.”

He wondered who Rin was. A friend of Zaizen's? Someone very close to him if they were sharing a bed, certainly. But he didn't let himself dwell on it too long, turning back to the computer screen. He could look into it later.

“That sounds like fun,” Oshitari said and he laughed softly. It was so easy to imagine Zaizen's ears turning red and the hunching of his shoulders in his desk chair. “But we've got work to do, darling. Send the details to Sanada and prepare to open Tezuka's cell door. I'll go to Kenya.”

Oshitari removed the device from the computer panel before he quickly closed it up again with practiced ease. He turned to look down at the four unconscious bodies by Jirou who was still looking half-asleep.

“Did they see enough to identify us?”

Jirou thought for a moment, probably playing over the scene in his head again. “Probably.”

Oshitari sighed and pulled his gun out, pointing it at the first man's head. “What a shame.”

–

Kenya was in one of the minimum security areas, the crime he'd been accused of minor and perhaps embarrassingly, not really linked to his actual job.

It took all of a few minutes to reach the door of his cell and even shorter for Jirou to pick the lock, the door swinging outward. The minimum security areas were controlled by the central system to open the doors, but they also had a backup lock that was manually pickable and could override the automatic system. And with Zaizen needing to devote all his attentions on Sanada now at this point in the operations, it was easier for Jirou to do it.

“Darling cousin, wake up, we're here to rescue you. Keigo needs you.”

Kenya swore and scrambled out of his bed, pulling on his clothing even as Oshitari watched on in some amusement.

“You haven't contacted me at all since I got in here, and suddenly you show up?”

“Surely this is better than a phone call? I can leave and send you a regulated care package if you really want one. I hear they're quite good.”

Before Kenya could snap back at him, Jirou pushed his way into the cell and headed for Kenya. “Whoa, you're Yuushi's cousin? He's never mentioned you to me,” Jirou said. It seemed he'd finally woken up properly. “Is your hair blue as well? Or is it actually this colour?”

Oshitari turned away with a chuckle as he listened to Kenya trying to talk to Jirou. He was going to sweep the cell and collect anything Kenya might find of use – very little, as he glanced around – but then he caught sight of a familiar pair of eyes watching them through the small window on the door of a cell opposite. Even with just the eyes and forehead showing, Oshitari would know them anywhere.

Shishido Ryou. 

“Ryou? I'm surprised you're awake. I thought I arranged for this whole section to be drugged asleep. Didn't you eat your evening meal tonight?”

There was something unreadable in Shishido's expression at the question and Oshitari suddenly understood. He didn't need Shishido to say anything.

“You're here to get me out, right?”

Oshitari paused and shook his head. “Keigo hasn't mentioned anything about that. It wasn't part of our plans for tonight, I'm sorry.” He couldn't help the pity in his voice and he reached to touch the fingers grasping the small bars.

He heard a thunk as he thought Shishido kicked the door of his cell and his grip on the small window of bars tightened even as Oshitari's hand pulled away.

“Get me out of here, Yuushi or I swear...”

Oshitari stared at him in silence for a long white before he finally shook his head again and stepped away. It was hard to keep the pity off his face, and that perhaps was a mistake as even a fool could see it now. “I'm sorry Ryou, you'll have to stay here. For a little while longer.”

“ _Fuck_ you. Oi, Jirou!”

Oshitari closed his eyes as he heard Jirou gasp and come over, Kenya just a few paces behind him. “Ryou? I didn't know you were in here. I haven't seen you in ages. Hi.”

In just that moment, Zaizen's voice cut through into his earpiece. “They've got the other person. They're both heading to the ship.”

“Thank you, darling. We're on our way too.” Oshitari reached out to tug on Jirou's elbow, pulling him away from the door to Shishido's cell. He tried not to look at Shishido, though he was aware of the angry, heated look he was getting, feeling it almost scorching his body the longer they stayed there. “Jirou, let's go. We've got Kenya, we have to return to the ship now.”

“Oh okay. Ryou, I have to go but I'll call you later okay. We have to catch up.”

Shishido swore and kicked the door again, if the thunk was anything to go by. Oshitari stared for a moment longer at the angry eyes, imagining the gritted teeth and then to the knuckles, white around the bars. He hesitated, one, two steps away from the door and then he sighed, stopping completely.

“Jirou, get Ryou out as well. Hikaru, you heard all that I assume? I need to remove Ryou Shishido's records as well, we're taking him with us.”

He watched as Jirou manipulated the locks, Shishido having taken steps back from the door to await his release and Oshitari shook his head at Zaizen's murmured question into his ear piece.

“I'll deal with this situation with Keigo myself. You just need to focus on wiping the camera records clean.”

He was getting too old for this.

–

Sanada could see the moment Zaizen located Tezuka, a small dot appearing on the map that hovered awkwardly in the top left of his field of vision. He picked up his pace, his footsteps sounding loud as he ran through the corridors, past the double-lined doors to the cells, watching his own blinking light on the map come closer to Tezuka.

There were guards on patrol as he went, that Sanada disposed of easily enough, tossing them into the nearby cells between the first and second doors as he got deeper into the prison.

Perhaps he should have felt something about needlessly killing them, but his mind was focused so entirely on finding Tezuka that he paid them barely any heed.

What would he be like?

Atobe had raised the question with him, seemingly out of nowhere, though Sanada had his suspicions where the sudden insecurity in his plan had come from.

How would prison have changed Tezuka?

He remembered all too well what just a few weeks in prison had done to Tezuka's physical appearance, the tiredness in his face... what would fifteen years have done? And to his mind as well... with the knowledge that his closest friends thought he was dead for them... what would that have done?

… How had Sanada himself changed in fifteen years? Surely not much. But he hesitated in his thoughts at that.

It made him almost afraid to have Zaizen open the door, even as he stood in front of it, unmarked and almost fading into the walls of the asteroid like all the other doors around it. But no. Tezuka hadn't changed, not really.

Physically, perhaps, even from when they'd first met, he'd changed physically. But his personality had never changed, even through growing up, entering military school and active warfare. Even though the accusation and the trial, he hadn't wavered.

Sanada wondered for a moment if Tezuka would still be as stupidly stubborn as he had been... and then realised that wasn't even really something to think about.

Almost as if Zaizen was watching, the door in front of him slid open. Sanada clenched his hands into fists before he made himself relax and stepped in, past the first door, and then the second.

His gaze was drawn to the man sitting on the bed, looking like he'd just woken and grabbed his glasses the moment the door had opened in a manner that was so endearingly familiar in the mussed hair and the slightly lopsided glasses. The confusion and almost... anger that melted into incredulity and a dawning recognition the longer they stared at each other.

“... Genichirou?”

Sanada found himself speechless, staring at the face that was so familiar, so achingly familiar that some small part of him that he hadn't even realised in his long-lingering grief had disappeared, seemed to almost fill again. He crossed the room in one, two short strides and leaned down to pull Tezuka into an embrace, feeling him tense up in surprise and the solid, the _real_ and _alive_ Tezuka awkwardly hug him back.

“Kunimitsu. Let's go.”

Tezuka stared at him as Sanada pulled away. And time seemed to drag out until Tezuka shook his head and straightened his glasses. “... You're not meant to be here. What have you done?”


	2. Intermission: Zaizen Hikaru and Hirakoba Rin

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> RinZ. If you're not interested, it's not a necessary chapter to read in terms of contributing to the overall plot. It'll just explain some character motivation behind some stuff that happens later.

It had started off as a way to pass the time.

It had been fun, to create various photos to put on a dating site profile, by piecing together what Zaizen supposed people would think were the attractive traits of the various people around him into a single fictional male.

Oshitari, who he saw far too often in person, donated a lot to his fictional person. Councilman Atobe even donated a few smaller features. His next door neighbour, who Zaizen had seen a total of two times, both while going out to get a drink from the nearby vending machine, had given his nose and two of his fingers that Zaizen had captured by strategically placed cameras in the stairwell.

Oshitari was responsible for the other three fingers.

Akaya's eyes, Kaoru's legs, Wakashi's forearms...

He had hesitated for a few moments over adding perhaps his piercings, or some other small part of himself to the overall person, but he'd moved on from that idea quickly enough. He was using the most attractive traits of the people and as the mind behind creation, that was already his most attractive trait given.

He'd called his creation HIRO.

Zaizen tried a number of approaches to talking to people, first emulating Oshitari's smothering but charming personality and then trying out Yukimura's. But it wasn't efficient enough in extracting information from people, so Zaizen fell into the routine of just firing questions off at people through the site.

People were keen to answer questions about themselves from HIRO, Zaizen quickly discovered and noted down. He wondered if it had to do with the profile picture he'd created of HIRO perched on one of the touristy statues around the colonies, sunglasses glinting and Oshitari's winning smile being perfectly captured.

People were less keen to keep answering questions after the first twenty or so. Especially since Zaizen never answered any about himself.

Which was a shame, really, since some of his later questions that he had planned looked to provide fascinating data. The first twenty were very standard, although good for collecting general data on the population of people who frequented online dating sites, he supposed.

Some of them lasted until fifty, some didn't even answer two. Zaizen tracked the data in a constantly updating spreadsheet.

But there was one person that answered the first fifty, and then the next fifty.

_What's your earliest memory?_ was question one hundred and one.

By question two hundred, Zaizen finally looked at their profile, and spent a long moment staring at the picture of the long haired blonde sitting on what looked like one of the beaches on Earth. One in the newly formed Oceania Union most likely.

He saved the picture to his spreadsheet by question two hundred and three.

Zaizen ran out of pre-planned questions after two hundred and thirty one.

_What's your name?_ was question two hundred and thirty two.

_Rin Hirakoba_.

Zaizen started up a new spreadsheet for Rin Hirakoba.

Question two had told him Hirakoba was only a couple of years older than him and question sixteen had told him that Hirakoba worked in the military.

Zaizen used Oshitari's access code to access the military data records, shifting through them until he opened the one for Hirakoba. He skimmed the information on his screen, everything lining up almost exactly with what Hirakoba had told him in the series of questions. His weight was a little different, but Zaizen just added a small annotation to his spreadsheet.

He stared for a long time at the photograph provided, Hirakoba staring directly at the camera almost back at him and looking very different with his neatly pressed military uniform, the collar done up and his hair pulled back from his face.

He saved that photo as well.

_What's a ticklish spot of yours?_ was question six hundred and forty four.

Hirakoba didn't answer that one and there was silence.

He thought that Hirakoba might have gotten tired of his questioning at that point, but tracking through the Oshitari's computer indicated he was on Earth in some military demonstrations.

Zaizen turned his attention back to his computer games until he finally got a notification days later. He tried not to notice how eagerly he went to his inbox to read it.

_The back of my knees_ was all that was written, almost as if there had been no break at all.

_How was Earth?_ was question six hundred and forty five.

_Are you in the military as well?_ was the first question Hirakoba asked of him.

_No. Answer the question_.

_Earth was nice. Very hot. I dislike gravity._

By question eight hundred, Zaizen was pretty sure he knew Rin Hirakoba the best out of all of his friends and had the most data on him, even compared to the files he kept on his three friends from back in the ports. He had found more photos of Hirakoba from his graduation from the military academy and questions eight hundred and twenty to thirty had been about that.

He wondered what Hirakoba thought of him, through HIRO. He knew Hirakoba's type could be generalised as tall, dark and an asshole, especially with his continued interest in HIRO as they crept past nine hundred questions asked and answered in turn.

_How would you feel if one of your friends lied to you?_ was question nine hundred and fifty seven.

_It'd depend on the lie. But disappointed._

He wasn't tall like HIRO, and while he thought that Hirakoba might like his personality – what little of it had come through in their conversations - that he was almost a head shorter than he knew Hirakoba liked and had deceived him for months...... Zaizen didn't really know how that made him feel.

From his data he'd gathered, Zaizen had no doubts he knew how Hirakoba would react if he found out the ruse.

Zaizen didn't think about his own feelings on the subject or how he'd feel if their conversations came to an end. They weren't relevant. Not really.

_Why have you kept answering my questions?_ was question nine hundred and ninety nine.

_Because it's fun._

What a simple reason.

He might as well get the inevitable over and done with and try to gather as much data as possible in the meanwhile. Collecting data on Rin Hirakoba in person seemed like a good idea and he'd probably only have one opportunity to do so, so he should make it count.

_Do you want to meet up?_ was question one thousand.

–

Hirakoba had agreed to meet him at the corner shop just a few blocks away from Zaizen's apartment block. He didn't tell Hirakoba its significance, the closeness to his home, or the fact that it was one of the few places Zaizen felt relatively comfortable leaving his home to visit for a short period of time.

Zaizen stood inside the store, hiding behind the rows of sweets as he looked out the window to the street.

He noticed Hirakoba as he crossed the street towards the store, his blond hair an automatic give away in an area that was mostly populated by the dark hair of people from the old East Asia Republic. He looked different, wrapped up in a coat and scarf that hadn't made an appearance in any of his profile pictures and Zaizen pulled out his camera to take a photo through the glass.

That all done, Zaizen took his purchases to the counter to pay, tucking the bag of sweets into his pocket and he stepped outside.

He wondered how long Hirakoba would wait for someone who didn't exist to arrive. The data suggested twelve minutes and thirty seconds, at most.

Zaizen moved to stand next to Hirakoba, who was standing just to the side of the door, waiting. The height that he'd been given and had gotten from his military records was accurate, he noted, making a quick note down in his communicator. It was hard to check the weight given Hirakoba's clothing... which was a shame. It was one piece of data he wouldn't be able to confirm.

He continued making silent observations and the minutes ticked on, glancing at Hirakoba who was looking mildly impatient at the wait.

He noted that down too, as well as the exact angle of his eyebrows.

“Do you need anything?” Hirakoba finally said. “Or are you just going to keep standing there?”

They hadn't had any communication beyond the written messages and Zaizen hadn't really gone to any lengths beyond a few short videos to hear Hirakoba's voice. It was pleasant enough.

“Keep standing here.”

That seemed to throw Hirakoba off balance a little and he turned to look more at Zaizen, his eyebrow raising. Zaizen stared right back at him with his usual flat stare. Hirakoba's eyes were very blue, in a way that photographs didn't really capture properly. Zaizen moved his thumbs to write that note down as well without glancing away.

Hirakoba finally laughed and turned away, tucking his hands into his pockets.

“Alright then.”

Ten minutes passed before Hirakoba pulled out his hand-held communicator and Zaizen peeked around his arm to see the screen and the message Hirakoba was sending HIRO.

Zaizen got the silent notification for the message on his own and he ignored it.

There was only so much data that could be gathered by standing there, though Zaizen took in the tiny details of how he tied his scarf – accurate to the answer – the double breast of his coat, the way he could just see the start of regrowth at Hirakoba's roots. 

The last two and a half minutes passed before Hirakoba made an impatient noise and sighed. Before he could move off though, Zaizen suddenly kicked him in the back of the knees.

Hirakoba stumbled and caught himself before he fell, turning around to look at Zaizen, looking furious. It was a good expression. Zaizen pulled out his camera to take a photo.

“What was that for?”

Zaizen looked flatly down at him. “Maybe you're not as ticklish there as you think you are.”

He could see the moment that the realisation sunk in of who he was and what had happened and Hirakoba's facial expression shifted through a series of emotions. Zaizen took photos of each one. He wondered if he could link each image together to make an animation to analyse later.

He was still hitting the shutter button as Hirakoba reached out and snatched the camera from his hand, throwing it on the ground. Zaizen stared at it dispassionately as it smashed on the ground and Hirakoba's flushed face was in front of his own. Hirakoba's hand was tight around his wrist and Zaizen wondered if he could convince him to remove his gloves to properly check the callouses on his palm Hirakoba had said he had.

“You broke my camera,” he said, looking away from Hirakoba's face and to what he could see of the remains of his camera on the ground behind him. It didn't really matter that much, all the photos he'd taken were automatically transferred to his computer... but it was inconvenient.

“I'll break a lot more of yours if you don't start talking _now_.”

Zaizen was silent for a long while and he felt Hirakoba's grip tighten. It was actually painful. He wondered what Hirakoba's grip strength was, that was one question he hadn't asked about.

“Do you want to come back to my place?” was question one thousand and one that he asked. “I'll make you dinner.”

–

Hirakoba had indeed come back to his place, which he'd cleaned before going out to meet him at the corner shop. Zaizen wasn't entirely sure how that first meeting had had such positive results, but he'd recorded down all his thoughts and taken the footage from the cameras around his apartment to analyse later.

He hadn't gotten around to it yet though, three years on from that first meeting.

But somehow, Hirakoba kept coming back to visit him. Zaizen watched his promotion to lieutenant, his stationing at Zabrze under Commander Kite that meant Hirakoba was able to visit more often.

It had been early on that Zaizen's mattress on the floor that had been a functioning place to lie down when he finally passed out, was replaced by an actual bed with more than just a blanket and a single pillow on it. He didn't understand it really, but Hirakoba liked to sleep at night.

Zaizen switched to a quieter keyboard when Hirakoba was over for the night, and kept his voice down over the microphone during his gaming.

The hugs and kisses had taken time to get used to... just the general physical contact and having someone else close to him had taken time to get used to. But there was never anything demanding or expectant in Hirakoba's touches to the point that they became a part of his normal life.

He didn't seem to mind that Zaizen didn't go outside. He didn't say anything about a short trip to the store being all Zaizen was willing to do, and didn't complain about the demands Zaizen made in terms of things to bring him when Hirakoba did visit. His fridge was always restocked whenever Hirakoba visited, as Hirakoba arrived with packages of food in tow and handed over Zaizen's orders for particular items or food from stores further away than he was prepared to travel.

Hirakoba was over the day that Oshitari had planned to break into the prison. He'd been surprised when Zaizen had insisted on it having to be done at nighttime, but Hirakoba had taken leave and was spending a week at Zaizen's place. He thought Oshitari had modified his plan a little, but Zaizen just worried about getting Hirakoba to go to bed on time.

The prison break was easy. He'd played harder campaigns in his online gaming. It was easy with the network of cameras, the centrally controlled doors for the maximum security cells and the over reliance on technology that they fell into.

Zaizen thought they would have learned from the attack on Earth all those years ago, but he supposed not.

He'd been the one to build up the government's defence security systems when they'd required an upgrade just a year ago and had left himself his own ways in, just in case he had an afternoon to spare one day. It had only been the initial entry into the prison's system that he'd needed Oshitari to help him with, by plugging his device into their physical computer system to grant him access, but everything else fell into place so simply after that.

He watched Sanada's progression through the prison carefully, keeping his line to Sanada muted so his conversation with Oshitari didn't interfere with the older man. He'd looked into the military records, he knew who Sanada was going to rescue and why they were really there.

It didn't really concern him.

“Got it,” he said as he found Tezuka's file on the system. Or well, an anonymous file that matched up with the copies of the paper one he'd been sent. There had been a lot of anonymous files... he wondered briefly what sort of people they were and if he could somehow find out.

He tensed up as he heard Hirakoba shift on the bed just a few paces away and groan, a sure sign of him waking up. Go back to sleep, Zaizen thought. Normally Hirakoba just rolled over, they had a sleepy conversation of a few sentences before he rolled over again and went back to sleep. But sometimes he just moved in his sleep.

Maybe it was one of those times.

“Hikaru, you're still awake?”

No such luck.

“I'm doing an important campaign,” Zaizen said. He was watching Oshitari through the camera He quickly hid the window just in case Hirakoba was awake enough to see.

He heard the squeak of the mattress and he tried to see Hirakoba's reflection to see if he was just getting up to go to the bathroom. But he heard Hirakoba approach him and felt the touch of Hirakoba's warm hands as they slipped under his shirt.

It was a little strange and different from the normal hugs, but Zaizen was okay with it. The warm hands felt kind of nice.

At least until one of them slid down lower and past the elastic of his pants to between his legs. Zaizen's ears burned and he tried to hunch in his chair, pulling his legs up. He was very aware of the embarrassing gasp he made and that he was still connected to Oshitari's ear piece but he grabbed onto Hirakoba's hand with his own and he didn't want to let go to reach for the button to mute his microphone.

“Rin... Rin stop it.” He squirmed and made a noise that made his ears burn more as Hirakoba's hand tightened a fraction more.

“I'm lonely in bed, Hikaru. It's late, you need to sleep.”

He wondered if Hirakoba was fully awake to realise what he was doing and that Zaizen was still a head shorter than Hirakoba would normally want. Or that they were in a small, dark apartment when Hirakoba's preferences had been for males who went outdoors and did physical activities that Zaizen had quickly deemed too strenuous.

“Go to bed, I'll be there soon.”

He sighed as Hirakoba insisted on kissing him goodnight, letting his body relax slightly as the hand was removed from his pants to grip at his hair as Hirakoba's tongue stroked his own.

And then just as suddenly as it had all started, Hirakoba pulled away and wandered back to the bed, rolling himself into the blankets again, his back facing Zaizen's computer as it always did when he went to sleep. He always ended up rolling over and facing the computer light in the end anyway though.

“That sounds like fun,” Oshitari said and Zaizen flushed, curling up a bit in his chair and he turned away from looking at the bed. The added on laughter didn't help.

He was very aware of the sound of Hirakoba's breathing as he slipped into sleep. Zaizen had tracked the rate of his breathing and its correlation with his sleep cycle years ago. But it was easy to murmur instructions to Sanada and Oshitari as they needed it, keeping his words as vague as possible in case Hirakoba really was awake.

He'd shared that data with him, he could be manipulating it. 

Very unlikely, but maybe.

Hirakoba had been unnervingly forgiving of his ruse, it had confused Zaizen a lot. He'd been disappointed, like he'd said he would be, but there'd been no anger once the explanation had happened.

It was weird.

But that had been just Zaizen pretending to be a fictional person to gather some harmless data. He wondered if Hirakoba would be disappointed but still as forgiving if he knew about Zaizen's contributions and links to the group that was orchestrating the conflicts on Earth that were slowly escalating.

He didn't think his data could predict that, no matter how much he gathered for his file on Rin Hirakoba.


	3. Chapter 3

It had been a deal Tezuka had been happy to agree to, the moment it had been presented to him. His life in exchange for that of Atobe’s and Sanada’s. He hadn’t been told what would happen to them beyond that they would avoid execution as well, but it hadn’t been difficult to guess that they would be discharged regardless. Though, he suspected the two of them would have been going through the motions of leaving the military anyway.

He’d been more than willing to face death and had accepted it while sitting quietly in his holding cell, motionless as any small movement made the chains around his wrists clank and brought reality crashing down upon him again.

He hadn’t anticipated what had happened instead.

He understood why, of course. They had to do something to appease the relatives of those that had died in the crossfire, but only fools would have let that simmering animosity they created amongst those they had betrayed, continue unchecked.

Particularly with whom the two of them were. Atobe, with his family backing and the strong indications that he would one day move into a council position of his own. And with his military background, he would likely take the seat in charge of the Colonies’ defences and have the entirety of the military under his control.

And even Sanada… while lacking the prestigious name, was still one of the top scoring graduates from the military school on record with a noted flare for mechanics on top of his combat skills. 

And the council weren’t idiots, however much the three of them may have thought at times, particularly when Tezuka had been initially arrested and tried. The military had known what all three of them were capable of individually when they had initially formed their team, and they had seen the results when the three of them had worked together. They would have been stupid to forget about it even as they tried then to separate them.

To be kept there, until he needed to be dragged out if Atobe or Sanada needed reminding about their places in the world. What a future… Tezuka had allowed himself to chuckle quietly to himself, the sound echoing in the empty room.

How many of the council were in on this plot, he didn’t know. How many of them thought he was dead…? It didn’t matter very much, as the years trickled by.

He could only hope that they were both sensible, so he didn’t have to be taken out and killed before them again. And as days turned into months and into years that never seemed to end… Tezuka was grateful that it seemed that they had. He had asked, once, what his two friends were doing. But before the guard could come back with an answer, he was replaced with a new one.

Tezuka didn’t even know if he would have received an answer anyway.

He hadn’t expected his question to ever be answered, particularly not being able to see it for himself as the door opened, off schedule for once and Tezuka looked up to see Sanada for the first time in a very long time.

“You’re not meant to be here. What have you done?”

It hadn't been how Sanada had expected him to respond, that much was clear from the expression on his face and the way his hand moved as if to grab him again. How was he expected to react then, Tezuka wondered as he looked at Sanada's tortured expression, almost not quite willing to believe that it really was him standing there.

But it was, even with the lines of care on his face, his more heavily built frame; the stubborn set of his jaw as he seemed to make up his mind was still the same as it ever was. And much like it was when they were children, Tezuka had the realisation that he was going to be pulled inexorably along with Sanada's decisions, no matter how long it took Sanada to make him agree.

It was like a dream as he reached out to grasp Sanada’s hand with his own, the grip still as firm as it always was as it pulled him up to standing – and really, perhaps it was a dream. How many times had he imagined the same, almost _wanted_ the same; to have Sanada's hand reach out to his own?

And perhaps that was his justification for why he let himself be pulled out of the prison, why he ran behind Sanada, the hand still gripping his own so tightly that it hurt, even though he knew how dangerous this was.

It was only when he was bundled into the space craft and Oshitari smiled at him from the pilot seat that the reality of what Sanada and Atobe must have done started to sink in. He wasn’t blind. He saw the weaponry, the technology at their hands… how had they learned he was alive in the first place? What resources did they have at their backs for this?

Tezuka closed his eyes as he sat back in the seat.

His question to Sanada still stood. What had he done?

–

Neither Yagyuu nor Niou had seen the person that they both knew were in their house - Sanada keeping him sequestered away in the back room and taking his meals in there as well. Niou could almost let himself believe that there was no one extra in their house, save for the small signs.

There were the soft footfalls that he could hear when he sat in silence in his work room late in the night and closed his eyes, different to the heavy sounds Sanada made. There was also the low murmur of voices that his music and talking with Yagyuu tended to hide during the day.

There were no introductions though, no mention at all from Sanada on the few occasions that they had seen him, that there was someone else there. Though surely he had to know that they both knew he has returned in the middle of the night from the colonies with someone else the night before last.

Niou opened the door that day to the incessant knocking to find himself staring at an impatient Atobe – though how that was different to normal he didn’t know. But there were no rude comments to him this time, just the man pushing past him and walking down the hallway, leaving Niou to close the door behind him.

There was never any surprise at Atobe visiting the shop these days, though he knew that their group had debated about whether or not to keep it secret as Atobe continued rising in the ranks of the council. But as it had become public, some had simply spun it in the beginning as Atobe’s support for local businesses and it had been supported.

Others had dug further and found Atobe’s connection with Sanada through the military and it had been briefly played out as the results of the long lived camaraderie between old military friends, promoting the supportive atmosphere of their military and pushing for people to join their ranks.

Niou had worried initially, pushing Yagyuu to hide in one of the back rooms when people came visiting. But now, it wasn’t really important. No one suspected anything about Atobe’s visits, there was no scandal, no girls hanging off Atobe’s arms that they could write up about in even the trashiest of gossip columns. And after the first few visits, no one really cared anymore. 

Yagyuu returned to his worktable and Niou followed in after him, taking up a spot at the window ledge where he could look across the garden and directly into the kitchen if it remained open.

There had been no words, though Niou had expected some shouting on Atobe’s behalf, just Atobe collapsing into the brown haired man’s arms, and a long, unbroken hug. “They’re now hugging, it’s making my little pea heart swell up with feelings,” he said, just in case Yagyuu wanted to know what was happening.

“If it explodes, I’m sure we can build you an artificial one that works just the same,” Yagyuu said and Niou made a rude noise at him.

“I think the puffy chairman’s crying now,” Niou remarked, rather amused as he shifted his seat on the window ledge, moving from side to side as he tried to get a better angle across the garden into the kitchen. They were moving out of the way of the doorway now, which was making it difficult.

“If you say so, Masaharu…” Yagyuu said, carefully measuring along the edge of the part he was adjusting. “Your eyesight’s better than mine.”

Niou laughed and glanced at him. “My offer to give you bionic eyes still stands, you know. You could use them to zoom in as far as you wanted… and if you let me install a memory chip, you could even store photos—“

“Definitely not.”

“Killjoy.” Niou turned his focus back to the kitchen. There was a long pause before he spoke again. “Do you think they were in love?”

That was enough to make Yagyuu pause in what he was doing and look up at Niou. “Who? Sanada and Chairman Atobe?” 

Niou shrugged and he was enjoying this far too much. “All three of them. It would explain a lot.” Though he definitely had considered Sanada and Atobe being in some kind of romantic relationship before, even though he knew Oshitari wrote love letters to the chairman on a regular basis.

He’d heard some of the poetry as well, and he hoped he never had to again.

“Perhaps if you know who the third person is, it might.”

Niou snorted and Yagyuu gave him an ugly look at the noise. “Don’t play dumb, Hiroshi. I know you read those files on Sanada from years ago. You left it open on the wrong page, I could tell.”

He wasn’t ashamed to admit that he had never really been bothered enough to look too deeply into Sanada’s past. He knew the basics, and it hadn’t interfered with work, so there was no need to dig deeper. At least until Yagyuu was away for a week doing something with Sanada and Jackal. He did that regularly, it seemed, always coming back smelling of gunpowder and new forming callouses on his hands.

He’d been in need of a new hobby, Niou told himself and so he’d poked around with a bit of help from Oshitari. And from what he’d read, from what he could _see_ of the man who was standing straightly upright even as Atobe clenched his fingers into the back of his shirt, it wasn’t hard to guess who this person was.

Kunimitsu Tezuka, the third member of Sanada’s group with Atobe from their time in the military together. 

Illogical, perhaps, with what he knew, but he couldn't think of anyone else who would fit the position he could see the man in now.

It can’t have been planned, with how quickly Sanada had left the other day and how little warning he’d given the two of them to look after his shop. But as he dwelt on his assessment on the relationship between the three, it made sense.

“Perhaps,” Yagyuu said eventually. Niou didn’t know which of his queries Yagyuu was answering, so he assumed all of them.

The kitchen door closed then and Niou sighed, hopping off the window ledge to go sit at his work table, spinning his chair around to face Yagyuu. “Do you think Seiichi knows?” Had there been time to tell him? … Or was Sanada working independently?

“I know less than you do, Masaharu and I doubt we’ll learn anything more until Sanada tells us, if he chooses to at all,” Yagyuu said patiently. “Make yourself useful and start on the jobs for this afternoon.”

Niou spared a glance for the window again and sighed loudly. He didn’t think he’d get any answers short of going to the door and banging on it, but even then he didn’t think Sanada would be likely to talk. He supposed all he could do was wait...

–

It seemed his questions would be answered at least a little though, regardless of what Sanada wished. Niou sat at the table, watching the news while Yagyuu was elbow deep in suds, scrubbing a particularly burned pot.

Yagyuu’s eyebrows rose as Atobe spoke on the news, gesticulating strongly towards the flashing of the cameras, as he announced a review of the prison system. Their current system was antiquated, still locked in place by old laws from when the colonies were first constructed and mankind made the first movement into space.

“We are no longer bound by the Neutral Territory Treaty and the constraints they placed upon us to hold us in their dictated peace with Earth. We are continuing to advance and evolve separate from them--”

Niou swirled the remains of stew around his bowl with his fork and watched Atobe’s carefully schooled expression, the words fading into a blur mixed with the sound of Yagyuu’s furious scrubbing.

He wondered if Sanada was watching this at the same time in his work room and wondered what he thought. But there was nothing but silence from the workroom tonight, even the light clinking sound of the metal spoons against the bowls had long finished. They come down in the morning tof find two bowls put neatly in the sink as well.

The only sound of someone in the back room came later that night as Niou sat along the hallway that looked out at Sanada’s garden, the thin walls of the house not quite hiding the way Yukimura shouted through the communication device, Niou able to hear every word from where he was sitting.

“How much more are you and Atobe keeping from me, Genichirou? You’ve risked all of our lives for… for someone who should have remained dead!”

Niou nursed his drink and glanced down the darkened end of the hallway at the strip of light along the floor underneath Sanada’s door. He could just be thankful that he’d installed privacy sound filters around their house a long time ago, to blur out the details of heated conversations like this.

He looked up at the sound of footsteps, seeing Yagyuu with sleep rumpled hair, coming down to fetch him. How late was it? Had he been listening in on Yukimura’s loud conversation with Sanada as well?

“Are you going to betray me as well?”

Yagyuu looked questioningly in the direction of the back room and Niou just wordlessly shook his head and pushed himself up to standing to follow him up the stairs. Yukimura could go on for a long time and it wasn’t as much fun when Sanada’s replies were muffled and quiet and he couldn’t quite make them out.

“What do you think is happening?” he asked, looking down at Yagyuu as they lay in bed together.

Yagyuu sighed and shifted underneath him. “With what?”

“This wasn't part of Seiichi's plan, Sanada getting this new person.” Niou paused and made a soft noise as Yagyuu's fingers slid underneath his nightshirt to stroke along the small of his back. “I don't know what he's going to do.”

He'd never been tied to the group, really. His only participation had been on the fringes as he built devices to Yukimura's specifications, although one could argue he was more involved, he just didn't want to admit it to himself. But there was an unavoidable feeling in the pit of his stomach that the presence in the floor below that sat so quietly in Sanada's back room was the catalyst for something that he wasn't going to like.

“We could leave, if you want,” came Yagyuu's reply, softly spoken.

Niou froze, even as Yagyuu's fingers stroked down his side soothingly. “Would you mind?”

“No, I wouldn't. I'm only here because of you, anyway.”

He sighed at that answer and moved to pull the blankets up over his head, settling into his usual position on top of Yagyuu to sleep. Niou tried to ignore the laughter he could hear or how Yagyuu's hands settled down on his back, holding him in place.

Leaving? What a foolish thought.

–

“I’m sorry you’re stuck in the room all day. It’s just too risky.”

Tezuka allowed himself to smile as Sanada moved to sit down as well, an old shogi board set up between them. There was a chill in the air as they sat looking out at the little garden with its neatly raked stones and carefully cultivated plants. It was reminiscent of Sanada’s grandfather’s garden back in Daedalus City and Tezuka’s gaze lingered on the collection of larger rocks that were so carefully placed.

“It’s fine, old friend. It’s just nice to be able to feel fresh air on my face again.”

Of all the things he had come to miss in prison, that wasn’t one that had crossed his mind. But in the fifteen years… he seemed to have forgotten what it had felt like until he’d stepped out of the hired car and been bundled into Sanada’s shop.

He smiled and accepted the drink passed to him, looking at the board. His skills at this too, had become rusty with no one but shadows to even contemplate practicing with. “The sky isn’t as nice as on the moon though. Or from large carrier ships.”

“No, it’s not.”

They passed a few more moves on their game before Tezuka sighed and looked down at the board again. “Fifteen years...” He knew he’d made this comment before, made it multiple times before, but it was still difficult to comprehend.

He’d stopped counting the time a long time ago, because surely there wasn’t an end date to him being in prison. And if he didn’t know both Sanada and Atobe so dearly, and couldn’t see the ravages of time on their faces and on his own, he might have thought it was all a joke.

“It’s been a long time,” Sanada agreed, as he always did.

Tezuka took a sip of his drink, savouring the rich taste. “I was surprised that you opened a mechanic shop.” Though perhaps it shouldn’t have surprised him, with Sanada always having a flair for it when they were younger and completing his apprenticeship maintaining spacecraft. “Your grandfather would be proud.”

“About some things, maybe.”

Tezuka gazed at Sanada in silence for a long time at that cryptic comment and he moved a piece on the board. “I doubt you have done anything untrue to yourself, Genichirou. Which is what our grandfathers always encouraged until the very end.”

Sanada grunted in response but said nothing else. He seemed to have relaxed slightly though, and Tezuka looked away.

“You’re also living with people now,” Tezuka continued speaking and he sighed as Sanada cut through his weak offense and finished the game. “I was surprised.”

He hadn’t seen them, Sanada had made sure of that, but he’d heard them easily enough, heard the casual chattering that he realised had been absent from his silent prison cell that only heard sound when the door opened every day for his meals. “They sound lively.”

“They work well enough at their jobs.”

Tezuka didn’t say anything extra after Sanada spoke, turning away from the board to look up at the sky again. His best friend had always been uncomfortable displaying his feelings and Tezuka knew that he felt more strongly about the other two inhabitants in the house than he would ever be willing to let on.

They sat in companionable silence and passed a couple more games that went by far too quickly for Tezuka’s liking. He remembered times when they would sit over the shogi board for hours, trying to outwit each other. Now, it seemed his wits were dulled.

Sanada finally stood up and clapped his hand on Tezuka’s shoulder. “It’s getting late. If we’re not careful, Niou will be up soon for his nighttime sky watching.”

That made little sense to Tezuka, but he stood up anyway, taking their glasses into the kitchen before following Sanada into the back room. It was comfortable enough, made up into a temporary bedroom, even as Tezuka could see the hurried piling of things to one side of the room.

There had never been any question of Sanada joining Tezuka in there, both of them lying down next to one another and looking at the dark ceiling. He could hear Sanada’s steady breathing, just inches from his head, could hear the soft rustling of the covers as Sanada sighed and poked one foot out; these actions so dear and familiar to him.

Sleeping next to Sanada and Atobe had been something he’d known he’d miss, enjoying their quiet warmth and presence as he drifted into sleep. And he had missed it, lying in his hard single bed in prison, with nothing but the wall next to him.

There was no physical contact between them as there once had been, save for when Sanada’s arm occasionally brushed against his own as they slept a bit too close to each other to avoid it. But it didn’t bother Tezuka, either the unintentional touches, or the lack of any further intimacy. Just lying here listening to Sanada was more treasured and missed.

There was still a lot for them to discuss. Sanada had been surprisingly reticent about telling him exactly what they were up to, how Atobe and him had _known_ he had been alive. There had even been little information about his comrades. There was more at work here than just Sanada owning a simple mechanic shop, that much Tezuka knew. But… Tezuka turned his head to the side and looked at the profile of his friend.

Things had changed. And Tezuka wasn’t sure he was going to like the reality now when he finally got shown it.

But for now, it was nice to just let himself believe that Sanada really did just run a mechanic shop and he hadn’t just been broken out of prison. He reached to grab onto Sanada’s arm and heard the other man grunt in surprise, half asleep already and Tezuka relaxed his grip, letting himself follow.

–

Yukimura had been delayed in his traveling from the colonies to the ports. It was something to do with the military, as far as Niou could tell from the half overheard conversations between him and Sanada. But with every extra day added on to the next, Sanada grew that bit more tense.

Niou thought he understood, as he looked up at the sky and wrapped himself more tightly in his blanket. Sanada was still loyal to Yukimura, no matter that he may have defied him to go rescue Tezuka, and he still believed in their cause. What would he do then, if Yukimura decided Tezuka was too big of a risk to keep around?

If he killed Tezuka?

To whom did Sanada owe greater loyalty? To Atobe and Tezuka… or to Yukimura?

Niou decided very quickly that he didn’t really want to know the answer to that question or how it would affect their household. Was that selfish of him?

He still hadn’t seen Tezuka, beyond the occasional glimpse down the hallway. Sanada kept him so carefully sequestered away, surely the isolation must be driving the man mad.

And so it was surprising as he heard footsteps in the hallway below and the door sliding open. Niou peered carefully over the edge of the rooftop, to see the dark shadow of someone moving to sit down. Tezuka, surely.

He would be silly to miss this opportunity. He knew Sanada had gone to bed hours ago and was now surely deep in his dreams. Niou carefully swung himself down off the roof, onto the lower level and then dropped quietly into the garden, a path he was all too familiar with now after years of practicing.

Tezuka looked up in surprise at him and Niou took the chance to observe him, in the dark night light and only the glow from the upstairs window to help him. He draped the blanket over his shoulders like a cape, wrapping himself up in it.

“Kunimitsu Tezuka,” Niou said and he was rewarded with a slight, almost missable widening of the man’s eyes that told him he was right with his guess about his identity. “Raised with Sanada in Daedalus City, joined the military with him… graduated with top marks from the academy… and then was executed.”

Tezuka’s expression shuttered more as Niou spoke and he moved closer towards Tezuka, carefully, waiting for him to just stand up and leave already.

“A bit strange isn’t it? Dead men don’t usually sit in gardens and stare at the stars.”

The older man looked at him, still sitting on the edge of the step, though he looked tenser than he had before. “Have you met many dead men?”

Niou was silent for a moment, thinking of how to answer it. If it was Yagyuu… he might guess that he would reply with some kind of morbid answer to whatever it was Niou said. But this was a complete unknown.

“Just one. And he prefers sleeping to star gazing.”

“That seems wise.”

He almost expected Tezuka to use that as his exit, to say that he would follow that advice. But there was no movement still and Niou adjusted his blanket a little bit to stave off the silence.

“Are you Niou or Yagyuu?”

The question was unexpected and saved Niou from having to think of something to say. He grinned and quietly hopped up to stand in the hallway. He wondered if Sanada was awake yet from the sound of them talking, but if he strained his ears he could still hear the muffled sounds of Sanada snoring and he relaxed a little.

“I’m Yagyuu. Niou is my troublesome partner.” 

Tezuka raised his eyebrows slightly at that and looked at him curiously. “Really? I thought Niou was the one who did the nighttime sky watching.”

That tripped him up for a moment and Niou covered it with a shrug, nudging at the edge of the door’s sliding tracks with his toe. “We work on shifts.”

“I see.”

Niou smiled at him and tucked his hands in his pockets. “No you don’t. But that’s okay.” He scuffed his feet along the wooden floor, just avoiding the creaking part with an odd hop. “Goodnight, Kunimitsu Tezuka, you should go to sleep before Sanada wakes up lonely and cold in his bed alone.”

“Goodnight, Niou.”

Niou paused and glanced back up Tezuka who was still watching him closely and he laughed to himself, shrugging before he continued wandering down the hall.

–

Niou sighed as he stirred his pot. Curry tonight, extra hot because he enjoyed seeing Yagyuu’s nose sweat even as the other man tried to hide how much the heat bothered him. He’d also enjoy seeing Sanada’s eyebrows pinch together at the first mouthful and the tenseness of his jaw as he ate. Not that he would be seeing it tonight, with Sanada still hiding away.

“What’s wrong, Masaharu?” Yagyuu asked, putting down his cup of tea and looking at him. 

Niou just shook his head and sighed again. He prodded at the potatoes and swirled everything around in the pot one more time before he dropped the ladle. “Keep stirring that, I’m getting Sanada. He’s going to start moulding if he stays in that room.”

He paused long enough to hear Yagyuu push his chair back before he left the room. He crept silently, he could hear the soft murmur of voices behind the closed door as he approached.

“Oi Sanada!” Niou kicked the door open and heard it crash against the wall. It made the conversation stop very abruptly and he could almost imagine Yagyuu sighing in the kitchen as he listened.

“Stop hogging your new friend and making him grow mould along with you.”

Sanada frowned at him and got up and Niou almost imagined that he was going to just shut the door on him and tell him to go away, if he even said it out loud.

“If you don’t come out, you’re not getting dinner,” Niou said threateningly and he tried to hide a grin as Sanada actually hesitated with his hand on the door handle.

Perhaps he had known Sanada for too long, for it to be this easy to manipulate him into doing what Niou wanted. And it made him stop and wonder if Sanada knew the same level of information on him and just… didn’t use it.

Still, that was something to think about for another day as he served up dinner, passing the last plate across the table to Tezuka. All the other table occupants looked vaguely uncomfortable at the awkward atmosphere in the room, but Niou didn’t mind all that much.

“So, are you going to introduce us? Or shall I start guessing his name?”

Sanada narrowed his eyes and Niou just grinned at him. For some reason, he felt foolishly confident at poking Sanada’s buttons tonight, ignoring even Yagyuu’s warning nudge under the table. Perhaps it was having a fourth person here for once that made Niou just that bit more insane.

“I’m going to guess Mac--”

“This is Kunimitsu, my friend,” Sanada cut across him and Niou shut his mouth, satisfied. “That’s Niou, my apprentice and Yagyuu his… partner.”

Niou thought that was all a rather vague explanation of them and was about to comment on it but Yagyuu’s hand was now digging painfully hard into his wrist, though the other man’s expression remained as calm as ever as he moved the curry sauce around his plate.

“It’s a pleasure.”

Tezuka made no move to mention that they’d met already and Niou wondered if Tezuka had even told Sanada about their conversation. Did it matter?

… Perhaps a bit, knowing that Tezuka was keeping secrets and letting him see more about their relationship.

Niou perked up a little at that thought and poked at his food. “So, you should probably have a look around the ports while you’re here. Did you know Sanada rides a motorbike?”

“I believe that may be a bad idea.” Tezuka paused though and glanced at Sanada. “When did you get a motorbike, Genichirou?”

“It’s unimportant.” Sanada frowned at Niou. “Kunimitsu isn’t able to leave the shop.”

Niou did notice that there was no mention of when he would be able to… was he ever going to be? What a depressing thought. He shrugged though and Yagyuu’s fingers relaxed slightly as they still dug into his side. “What a shame. I was going to the markets probably tomorrow, I could do with some new company.”

“Perhaps another time,” Tezuka said and Niou frowned slightly.

Still, the disappointment didn’t last much longer as he noticed Tezuka’s jaw tighten slightly at the first mouthful of curry. Sanada’s eyebrows were drawn together as well and Niou tried not to grin too much as he started eating as well. Yagyuu sighed slightly in the way that he did when he ate something too spicy and Niou let a soft laugh escape him.

Niou moved to sit down next to Tezuka again that night, the other man barely glancing at him away from looking at Sanada’s garden. Was the garden in the style that Tezuka favoured as well? He’d seen photos of Atobe’s sprawling gardens, in a much different style to the neat little rock garden at Sanada Dojo.

“Thank you for the meal tonight, it was quite… flavoursome.”

He snorted a little at that and shrugged. He thought it was quite a subtle way of saying it was extremely hot. He’d actually been quite impressed at how carefully Tezuka had controlled his expression, especially later as the spice really started to kick in.

“It’s my job here. Cooking.” One of them, anyway. Yagyuu couldn’t cook, so it was just easier for them to split the nighttime duty as they did.

They sat in comfortable silence for a good while, save for Niou whistling through his teeth, something that Tezuka didn’t seem to mind at all. It was finally Niou who broke the silence though, reaching out to poke Tezuka in the arm. It made the other man flinch a little and he lowered his hand carefully.

“Do you want to know a secret?”

Tezuka looked at him consideringly. “Do I have a choice?” It seemed he’d picked up on things faster than others would. He wondered if Sanada had been telling him rude things. 

“Not really.” Niou smiled at him and plowed on before Tezuka could say anything. “It’s exactly 22 steps down the hallway from my workroom to Sanada’s. And another ten to get to the front door, but that involves a right hand turn after four. And a step down after another three.” It was useful for when he was traversing the house in the dark and didn’t want to wake up Sanada.

“I see. Why is this important to know?”

Niou shrugged at him. “Does information have to be important for you to want to listen to it?”

“I find it helps.”

“There’s a creaky part of the hallway too… but that’s another level of secret that I can’t tell you.”

Tezuka didn’t reply to that, just frowned slightly and Niou leaned back on his hands and stared at the sky. A light further down the road was still on and Niou wondered who was still awake. If he was up on the roof, he’d probably be able to tell.

“Yukimura’s coming, you know that, right?” he asked, glancing at Tezuka who nodded briefly.

“Yes, I heard that particular conversation.”

Niou smiled and laughed softly to himself at that. Yes, he was pretty sure the whole household had heard that conversation. Yagyuu hadn’t mentioned anything about it though, but that man had the best hearing of them all, something Niou regularly joked was as a way of compensating his awful eyesight.

“… You also know you’re probably going to die when he arrives, yes?”

Tezuka made a soft noise at that, which Niou frowned over for a second before he realised it was some kind of… grim chuckle. “The prospect of death has never been one to frighten me.”

“Hah…. …. aren’t you brave?”

Niou laughed again and he swore Tezuka was smiling a little bit as he looked at the sky. He twiddled this thumbs for a little while, glancing at Tezuka now and again who remaining sitting unmoving next to him. He heard the shifting of Sanada in the back room, rolling around in his sleep to a more comfortable position and the faint whirr of the refrigerator.

“Sanada Dojo’s my safe place, you know,” Niou said suddenly, purposely glancing at Tezuka again. “Even without Hiroshi or Sanada here. Which is why I probably won’t ever leave, even though I could. I think it’s Sanada’s safe place as well.”

“That would not surprise me. About either of you.”

Niou bit his lip before he kept talking, looking up at the sky again. “But… maybe it’s not so welcoming and safe, for other people.”


End file.
